Sony and AT&T Announces Xperia Play 4G

Sony and AT&T made an exclusive partnership to unveil the Xperia Play 4G!

Just a few months after Sony’s Xperia Play hit the market, the company and AT&T announced an exclusive partnership to release the newest version of the phone — the Xperia Play 4G. The new mobile phone from Sony will feature the following:

* The Xperia™ PLAY 4G, combining a PlayStation®-certified gaming device with the capabilities and portability of an Android smartphone, arrives in AT&T stores, and online on September 18 for $49.99 with a two-year agreement.

* The Xperia PLAY 4G has dedicated gaming controls built into the phone through a slide out controller including directional keypad, dual analog touch joystick, two shoulder buttons and the four iconic PlayStation symbol keys: circle, X, square and triangle.

* Running the Android 2.3.3 (Gingerbread) platform, the first PlayStation-certified smartphone in the world features a brilliant 4″ 480 x 854 screen and stereo speakers.

AT&T offers the 4G-capable handset in an exclusive stealth blue color, together with bonus accessories like Sony Ericsson Multimedia Dock DK300 and MC100 music cable. Moreover, the Sony Xperia Play 4G is pre-loaded with seven games at no additional costs.

* Snapdragon chipset including a 1GHz CPU and Adreno 205 graphics processor (GPU)
* Runs on the Android 2.3.3 (Gingerbread) platform
* Sight and sound: 4″ 480 x 854 screen, up to 60 frames per second graphics, stereo speakers
* Dual camera: 5MP rear and VGA forward-facing, with video recording and chat capabilities over Wi-Fi
* Hundreds of Xperia PLAY optimized games through Android Market or directly from the publishers
* Pre-loaded with seven Xperia PLAY optimized games (as seen in the list above) from publishers such as Gameloft and EA.

As for the price, AT&T stated that the new mobile phone will cost $49.99. However, this move raises the question on whether PlayStation Vita is next. As the next portable gaming console will hit the shelves on early 2012 with a 3G model, will Sony launch a 4G-capable version of it afterwards? Only time will tell.